India troops detain academics in Kashmir

Police have detained several academics in Indian-administered Kashmir after accusing them of promoting anti-India sentiments in the disputed Himalayan valley.

The arrests were made in Srinagar and several other major towns in the predominantly Muslim region over the past 24 hours.

Indian troops have also arrested a college lecturer on charges of giving his students an English exam filled with questions attacking India’s crackdown on demonstrations in the volatile valley, the Associated Press reported.

Sources say Indian security forces have also detained a senior separatist leader Javed Ahmed Mir and other members of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front in the region.

This comes as Kashmiri protesters have staged a rally against extensive human rights abuses in the Indian-administered region.

Hundreds of people from various civil society groups, students and traders have taken part in a silent sit-in Srinagar.

The demonstrators called on the international community to help end what they call India’s continued human rights violations in the territory.

The Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) says nearly 10,000 persons have gone missing after allegedly being arrested by Indian troops over the past years.

Protesters later tried to march through the streets of the city but were soon stopped by Indian police. At least ten people were arrested.

Similar protests were held in other major towns in the region.

The demonstrations take place on the eve of the International Human Rights Day. On December 10, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

The violence has claimed the lives of at least 111 people, as the deaths have triggered widespread protests.

Roughly, half-a-million Indian forces are stationed across Kashmir.

The Kashmir valley has either been under curfew or shut down over the past four months. Residents have been complaining about the shortage of food, medicine and other supplies across the valley.

Meanwhile, Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram has, for the first time, acknowledged that a political solution to the Kashmir issue was needed to restore peace in the troubled South Asian region

“The home minister asserted that the Kashmir issue is a political issue for which a political solution must be found,” a government statement quoted Chidambaram as saying on Thursday.

Thousands have been killed in volatile Indian-administered Kashmir since 1989.

Several regional and international rights groups, including Amnesty International, have called on India to take immediate steps to protect and respect human rights in Kashmir.